Kimi Raikkonen says Lotus is more about racing than politics compared to some of the other teams he has driven for.

After two years out of the sport, Raikkonen returned to Formula One with Lotus this year and finished third in the drivers' championship. He scored points at 19 of the 20 rounds and said his success this year had partly been down to how easy he had found it to settle in to the team.

"I always said that this is a bit of a different team to the others that I raced for before," the ex-McLaren and Ferrari driver said. "It's all about racing and less about politics and I think that's a good thing for the whole team."

Raikkonen is confident he now has a basis to build on in order to be even stronger in 2013.

"It's been okay [this year], but then for sure you want to do it even better," he said. "When you start doing a few good results you expect to do even better, but it's not been easy and we've been quite consistent - not strong always - but we've been consistent and that kept us in the championship for a long time and brought us many points.

"But we know if we started the year stronger then we could probably still be in the championship [at the final race]. Hopefully we can build it up next year and I know the team next year so it should be a bit more easy to start strong next season."

He added: "I know the business itself of Formula One, but it's just being with a new team and finding what you want from the car and it should be a bit more easy next year. There are a lot things that can change and we have to build first a good car to be able to fight for the title.

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